Homer's odyssey

August 2 2003

Doughnuts from Honeymoon Patisserie. Photo: Marco Del Grande

Anything this deep-fried and sugary can only be a good thing, writes Amelia Hounslow.

'Doughnuts, is there anything they can't do?" asked Homer Simpson, the world's most famous doughnut enthusiast. While Homer's doughnuts are usually of the pink icing, with sprinkles (mmm ... sprinkles) variety, a doughnut can be anything you make it: filled with chocolate, custard, lemon cream, plum jam, containing no filling at all, or with a hole in the middle.

Forms of these fried snacks appear in cuisines all over Europe and Asia. They are all remarkably similar, from Indian amrit phal (sweet curd fried then steeped in syrup) to Croatian krafne (made from leavened dough enriched with brandy) and Lebanese awwamaat (enriched dough fried, dipped in syrup and then sometimes in crushed nuts).

In Germany and Austria doughnuts are hugely popular and are called Berliners or krapfen. (In older-style English and Australian cake shops, a jam doughnut is sometimes still called a Berlin.)

In Italy, Neapolitans celebrate the day of San Guiseppe on March 19 with thousands of zeppole (Italian doughnuts), traditionally given away, but more often sold, on the streets of Naples. In Sicily, the locals also make sfinci, a smaller, lighter style of doughnut, whereas in the north they like their bombolini bigger and more often than not, filled with creams. At A & P Sulfaro Pasticceria Italiana in Haberfield, Antonio Sulfaro simply calls his doughnuts, filled with jam, chocolate or custard, "bombe".

You can even get South African koeksisters in Batemans Bay at the Surf Beach Country Retreat (made by South African Elizabeth Mayer).");document.write("

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Now, we're bracing ourselves for the American onslaught. Krispy Kreme opened its first shop outside of North America in Penrith this year and plans another 30 outlets in Australia and New Zealand over the next five years.

The term "doughnut" is said to come from a New England ship captain's mother who made a deep-fried dough using her son's spice cargo of nutmeg and cinnamon. She put hazelnuts or walnuts in the centre where the dough might not cook through and called them doughnuts. Her son supposedly punched them out and created the hole in the middle. From this muddled beginning in the mid-19th century, machines had turned a kitchen craft into a growing industry by the 1920s.

American food writers source the first doughnuts to hit their shores to the fried cakes or olykoeks which arrived with the Dutch Settlers. But the Smithsonian Magazine points out that "archaeologists keep turning up fossilised bits of what look like doughnuts in the middens of prehistoric Native American settlements".

Honeymoon Patisserie

The doughnuts are called bola berlim here, and are filled with vanilla custard or raspberry jam ($1.30). They also have plain. While we wait in line, two women speaking fluent Portuguese leave with four boxes of the huge bola - and that must be a pretty good indication of the quality.

96 New Canterbury Road, Petersham, 9564 2389.

Laurent Boulangerie Patisserie

The French, renowned for adding that bit more to pastries, like to fill their beignets with chocolate. It's all about not getting too much of a good thing, and boy, aren't they a good thing. There are three kinds of light, airy beignets at Laurent: jam ($2), vanilla custard ($2.50) and chocolate ($2.50), made fresh each day.

Shop 3, 6 Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo, 9380 4718.

Carmel Cake Shop

These jam-filled doughnuts, also called sufganiyot ($1 each), are sugary and sensational, and are eaten during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah when foods in oil are traditionally served. You can get them all the time, though.

173 Bondi Road, Bondi, 9386 4400.

Springbok Delights

A local South African makes packs of 12 koeksisters for a mere $9.95, to be sold to home-sick Springboks. Syrupy and spicy, these doughnuts keep well, though they produce very sticky fingers.

656 Mowbray Road, Lane Cove, 9427 5168.

Arthur's Bavarian Bakehouse

Catch the Berliner krapfen on Saturdays if you can, but phone ahead or you may miss out. They are very plump and jam-filled ($1.50), and there are also "stretch doughnuts" hot from the oil and flattened out, as the name suggests.

9 Duneba Avenue, West Gordon, 9880 2242.

Bakery Patisserie Schwarz

Alex Schwarz makes the holey trinity of doughnuts - krapfen filled with jam ($2), custard ($2.20) or plain and sugared ($1.80). The sugared style comes in a ring or plaited. Schwarz says that in his native Germany, they celebrate Carnival, which begins on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, with krapfen for everyone.

Heat oven to 150-160C. Beat two eggs with two tablespoons of sugar, and a pinch each of nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir in two cups of milk and a liberal dash of vanilla essence. Pour into a greased, medium sized dish, stand in a tray of water and pop into oven for 15-20 minutes. Cut four to six plain or sugared doughnuts in half horizontally and warm in the oven. When the custard is set, place half a doughnut in a bowl, top with a scoop of custard and the other doughnut half. Serve with pouring cream or ice-cream.